Concepts,policies and practices of teacher education: an analysis of studies on teacher education in Portugal

Education policies, and in particular those related to teacher education, are central to the construction of Europe as a knowledge society and for facing the social and economic challenges that European countries must respond to in this millennium. This article presents an analysis of studies on the evaluation of in-service teacher education conducted in Portugal since 1992. Based on the results of this analysis, the study develops a reflection on the concepts, policies and practices of in-service teacher education, contextualising it within a wider equation related to teachers’ education in Europe. The study consisted of content analyses of scientific articles, research reports, studies of evaluation and legal documents that provide the guidelines for in-service teacher education in Portugal. At the end, a final reflection and some general recommendations for teacher education are presented. There is a focus on the importance of placing in-service teacher education at the centre of educational contexts and on the problems that this causes in teachers’ work, emphasising its importance for social justice in Europe.     

Hype,hope and ICT in teacher education: a Bernsteinian perspective

This article draws from ethnographic data produced inside mathematics teacher education in Sweden. It explores and makes visible the ongoing process of education during workshops in information and communication technology (ICT) laboratory contexts in which student teachers were working with spreadsheet applications on the computer. The main finding is that, contrary to the intentions to renew and revitalise education, ICT in use seemed to operate as a relay in the reproduction of traditional ways of teaching and learning. However, the investigation is not one of the failures of education to make use of ICT but one that tries to distance itself from the traditional enthusiastic rhetoric, with the ambition to contribute to a more realistic discussion. Bernstein's concept of pedagogical discourse has been used. One education setting has been studied in detail.     

Policy interventions in teacher education: sharing the English experience

Over the last 40 years, teacher education in England has been the focus of a stream of ‘reforms’ with the ultimate aim of placing provision into schools, the justification for such a radical policy being that higher education is alleged to be failing to provide good quality teachers thereby compromising the social and economic development of the country. The process whereby these reforms have been introduced is described and then used as a way of comparing and contrasting the way in which similar reforms can be identified in the international teacher education communities represented in this special issue of the Journal of Education for Teaching (JET). The paper closes by identifying lessons that can be learned from international comparators.     

地方高师高层次教师教育人才培养的机遇与对策

教师教育的变革给地方师范大学发展带来了前所未有的挑战;《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》颁布及全国教育工作会议的召开,对教师教育提出了新的要求;我国研究生教育结构性调整,为地方师范大学发展提供了新的视角。笔者认为,地方师范大学将挑战与要求转化为发展动力,抓住难得发展机遇,提升教师教育人才培养层次,扩大教育硕士规模,坚持培养原则,创新培养保障措施,确保培养质量,是其充分发挥自身优势与突出办学特色,在激烈市场竞争中谋求长远发展的较佳选择。     

Aspects of the professional identity of preschool teachers in Greece: investigating the role of teacher education and professional experience

In this paper, we present the results of a research programme we developed to investigate the professional identity of preschool education teachers in Greece. Our aim was to investigate parameters affecting not only the creation but also the reform of professional identity and to highlight potential differences in terms of professional identity. Contemporary approaches to professional identity – developed since the 80s – raise issues related primarily to participatory processes, reflection, autonomy and emancipation. Teachers’ professional identity is gradually developed through an ongoing process of three interrelated and complementary steps: (a) pre-service teacher education, (b) vocational integration and (c) exercise of professional duties and in-service training. We interviewed 20 teachers on their professional identity. We chose two categories of teachers based on two criteria: (a) their studies, and (b) their professional experience in the field. Tentative findings showed that professional experience was more important than studies in the construction of their professional identity. Professional identity also relates to both their professional experience and the dominant beliefs about early childhood education.     

加强师范生教育素养 促进教师教育改革

加强师范生教育素养,必须从五方面进行教师教育改革：优化课程结构、转变教学理念和评价标准、提高实习效率、加强大中小学教师合作及理论联系实践。     

音乐教师教育专业化存在的问题与对策研究

近百年来,我国音乐教师教育在办学机构、政策法规、课程设置等方面做了大量的基础性工作,但距离专业化标准要求还有很大差距。如办学单位专业水准低、法规建设不够健全、课程设置不够合理等。重新评估音乐教师教育办学单位、继续建立健全音乐教师教育法规、尽快全面实施科学合理的课程方案等,是加快我国音乐教师教育专业化进程、提高其专业化水平的当务之急。     

Literature review: The role of the teacher in inquiry-based education

Inquiry-based education receives much attention in educational practice and theory, since it provides pupils and teachers with opportunities to actively engage in collaboratively answering questions. However, not only do many teachers find this approach demanding, it also remains unclear what they should do to foster this type of education in their classrooms. Our research question was: Which teaching strategies are used by K-12 teachers when promoting inquiry-based education in their classrooms and what are the reported outcomes?After searching for empirical studies on this topic, we examined 186 studies investigating different ways in which teachers can promote inquiry-based education. Analyses revealed varying teaching strategies, differing with regard to direction (teacher directed, student directed and mixed) and different perspectives of regulation (meta-cognitive, conceptual, and social regulation). Results show that important teacher strategies in metacognitive regulation are: focussing on thinking skills, developing a culture of inquiry, supporting inquiry discourse, and promoting nature of science; in conceptual regulation: providing information on the research topic and focussing on conceptual understanding; and in social regulation: bridging the gap between high and low achievers, organizing student learning in groups and focussing on collaboration processes.     

主体性教师：教师教育的反思与变革

确立主体性的教师教育观念，建立一体化的教师教育体制，创建主体性的教师教育过程，实行主体性的教育管理方式，是主体性教师素质的培养要求。本通过主体性教师的概念界说、教师教育的现实反思和改革构想，旨在探寻我国教师教育改革与发展的途径与方法。     

The last 40 years in Finnish teacher education

This article sets out to identify and discuss the changes that have taken place in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years (1974–2014). A brief history of teacher education in Finland is presented, followed by the goals and aims of current research-based teacher education in Finland. Finally, the major changes in Finnish teacher education during the last 40 years are identified and discussed along with challenges for the future. These include the fact that with each passing year teacher education in Finland has become increasingly research-based. The ethical role of the Finnish teacher has changed from being a religious and moral example to being a principled professional who needs moral competence in pedagogical encounters. Teachers also need to master the rapid developments in information and communication technology in order to function in the same learning environments as their students.     

The case for interprofessional education in teacher education and beyond

In many PreK-12 school environments, individuals with a variety of professional identities and roles provide services to students. Typically, these individuals are trained with minimal interaction with each other, yet they must work cooperatively with each other in the schools. Interprofessional education (IPE) provides a model whereby students in different disciplines learn to collaborate. This article describes the origins and current status of IPE in the health professions; suggests strategies for applying IPE to educator training; describes a promising example IPE project involving two distinct school-based professionals, pre-service special educators and school counsellors in training, including outcomes documented through student reflections; and offers implications for implementing and sustaining IPE in schools of education.     

Rationality and rationalisation in teacher education policy discourse in New Zealand

Background:?A newly elected centre-right coalition government in New Zealand was forced to deal with the cumulative fiscal consequences of two unforeseen challenges: a global financial crisis in September 2008 and two major seismic events in the country's second largest city in 2009 and 2010. This paper examines the way in which policies for initial and continuing teacher education were reshaped thereafter and the justifications provided by government for these changes.

Purpose:?The paper examines the plausibility of the government's contemporary ‘crisis’ discourse and aims to show how ‘rational’ education policy changes also carry broader ideological and political agendas for teacher education. Thus, current changes to teacher education policy are located in the historical context of trends over the last two decades.

Sources of Evidence:?The paper uses official statements by government and officials to show how they justified the policy changes as the only possible responses to an external economic crisis. Secondary sources of statistical economic data and policy texts are used to demonstrate that equally plausible alternative responses were overlooked, rejected or ignored.

Main argument:?The paper construes teacher education policy as both text and discourse. It is argued that the media statements of politicians and officials are intended to secure popular approval for public education austerity measures, while at the same time masking an underlying political and ideological project and ignoring the informed policy rebuttals of some educationists.

Conclusions:?The steps taken in New Zealand to respond to a short- to medium-term national fiscal crisis have major long-term consequences for teacher education. Most apparent is the continued failure to acknowledge the major incremental reductions in public subsidies for initial teacher education that have occurred year on year since the early 1990s and, instead, to reiterate the new public management ideology of further public service efficiencies.     

The ideal teacher: orientations of teacher education in Sweden and Finland after the Second World War

There are many similarities between the Nordic countries of Sweden and Finland, but they have made different decisions regarding their teacher-education policies. This article focuses on how the objectives of teacher education, particularly the vision of the ideal teacher, have changed in Sweden and Finland in the period after the Second World War. In Finland, the period since the 1960s can be described as a gradual scientification of teacher education. The image of the ideal teacher has transformed according to a research-based agenda, where teachers are expected to conduct minor-scale research in the classroom. In Sweden since the 1980s, on the other hand, teacher education has oscillated between progressivist and academic orientations, following shifts in government between the Social Democratic Party and the centre-right. Since the turn of the millennium, however, a consensus in favour of a strengthened research base of teacher education has also emerged in Sweden.     

WTO与教师继续教育

随着我国加入WTO，社会的各个方面都将会面临一些新的问题，同样，新的形势给教师继续教育也带来了新的机遇和挑战，所以继续教育工作本身要更新观念，重新思考应对措施。     

From assistant teacher to teacher: challenges and pathways in situated pre-service teacher education

Vocational pathways to Higher Education have a key role in opening teacher education to under-represented groups but bring with them particular challenges. Teacher educators need to address the challenges faced by these learners, of not only connecting their learning but also challenging their knowledge, and doing so in an invested work environment. This paper shares my experiences as a teacher educator working with two groups of Indigenous and non-Indigenous para-professional pre-service teachers in remote and urban Central Australia. I identify four key role-shifting challenges individuals face in developing their professional practice and locate them in two interdependent areas: social sphere challenges arising out of the situated learning setting of professional experience, and those occurring in the personal sphere of professional identity. I suggest that the new ways of mentoring and the development of student’s reflexive capacity needed to address these challenges can best be mobilised by re-positioning the role of professional identity at the centre of both professional experience and academic learning.     

Comparative and international education in initial teacher education: an Irish case study

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, Comparative and International Education (CIE) has almost disappeared from the curricula of teacher education colleges in Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Yet, CIE is experiencing a revival at postgraduate level. This article will explore the reasons for this dichotomy and the decline of CIE in initial teacher education. It will use findings from a research study in an Irish teacher education college to inform this exploration. The author initiated, developed, and offered a CIE course to final year BEd (n=24) students in 2003 and again in 2005. This article will use data gathered during the latter course to explore CIE for undergraduate trainee teachers, considering students’ motivation for choosing to study CIE, their perceptions of CIE, and their beliefs about how it may enhance their professional practice in classrooms. It will explore, in particular, a significant finding that emerged from the study – the potential of CIE in developing student teachers’ capacities to teach in multicultural classrooms.     

Transformational practice: critical teacher research in pre-service teacher education

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines: the role of the teacher’s personal and academic history in the design of their teacher research projects; how their research worked to disrupt and complicate classroom cultures and practices; and the ways in which the pre-service teachers interpreted their research in light of new contexts during their first year of teaching. This work has critical implications in an era when teacher education programs are under attack, including: the value of drawing on pre-service teachers' lived experiences as an entry point into inquiry; creating highly localized inquiries; and positioning novice teachers as knowledgeable practitioners who are able to share research with colleagues.     

高师院校教师教育存在的问题与对策

教学计划是学校教育教学过程中的指导性文件,如何制定和实施教学计划直接影响人才培养的质量。针对高师院校教师教育存在的问题,应通过改革师范生的教学计划来解决。     

Workplace learning within teacher education: the role of job characteristics and goal orientation

Within teacher education, it is widely recognised that internships play a major role in preparing prospective teachers. The current research examines if the learning activities students’ undertake in the workplace can be explained by students’ goal orientation and their perceptions of the workplace. In addition, it will be investigated whether this model is predictive for students’ academic achievement. Participants in this study were 464 bachelor students enrolled in teacher education. The results from the structural equation modelling show that students’ learning goal orientation is an important predictor for students’ learning activities and academic achievement. Students with a higher learning goal orientation demonstrate a more active approach towards their learning. Regarding the context, some positive relations between work-related variables such as job demands and job control on the one hand and students’ learning activities on the other hand were identified, but their relationship was more limited than expected.     

音乐教师教育与基础音乐教育的呼应之管见

基础音乐教育课程改革轰轰烈烈,成绩卓著。各类音乐师范院(系)在积极的宣传、研究音乐新课程改革的同时,也将音乐新课程标准及其培训纳入了教学工作之中;许多教师还参加了国家、省(市)的音乐新课程的研究、培训,并出了不少成果;而且办学规模不断扩大、办学层次不断提高以及音乐教育研究生教育工作等,都无不显示出高等师范教育对基础音乐教育课程改革的关注。各高等艺术师范(院)系虽然积极参与基础教育改革,但是对自身的改革还显得被动和保守。因而转变观念,调整课程结构,为音乐基础教育培养合格师资乃当务之急。